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Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (4661)	1/9/2001 12:47:10 AM
From: Mark Fowler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

i hope so thanks. I'll be watching that index. Forward: 01/08 09:42 Crude Oil Rises on Expected OPEC Output Quota Cut (Correct) By Stuart Wallace Crude Oil Rises on Expected OPEC Output Quota Cut (Correct) (Corrects percentage for year-on-year U.S. heating oil inventories in the eighth paragraph. Updates prices.) London, Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose for a fifth day in six as OPEC officials signaled a growing consensus to lower output this month by at least 5 percent. An expected cold snap in parts of the U.S. is also boosting demand for heating fuel. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agree on the need to reduce output quotas at a Jan. 17 meeting, Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez said yesterday. Many OPEC nations, including Saudi Arabia, have called for cuts of around 1.5 million barrels a day. ``The market is starting to get itself structured for a cut of 1.5 million barrels a day,'' said Robert Laughlin, a London- based broker at GNI Ltd. Brent crude oil for February settlement rose as much as 44 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $25.62 a barrel in afternoon trading on London's International Petroleum Exchange. Last week oil rose 5.5 percent on expectations OPEC would make production cuts, after prices fell by a fourth last month. In the U.S., crude oil for February delivery rose as much as 40 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $28.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude oil was also pushed higher by reports of colder U.S. weather in the Northeast, the biggest heating oil market. Temperatures in the region will be below normal Wednesday through Friday before rising to above normal by the weekend, Weather Services Corp. said. Northeast temperatures may drop as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit below normal on Wednesday, pushing temperatures in Boston to as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius). The Northeast had its 16th-coldest December since records began 106 years ago, Weather Services said. Low Inventories U.S. heating oil inventories on Dec. 29 were 17 percent lower than a year earlier, the American Petroleum Institute reported last week. Heating oil for February delivery rose as much as 0.57 cent, or 0.7 percent, to 86.70 cents a gallon on the Nymex. Prices are up 34 percent from a year ago. While supplies of the fuel are lower than normal, crude oil inventories are piling up, OPEC estimates. Over the weekend, OPEC's Rodriguez said there was an ``oversupply of 1.4 million'' barrels of crude oil a day from September until the end of 2000. OPEC is ``firmly decided on a production cut of 1.5 million barrels a day at the next meeting,'' Platt's Global Alert quoted Iran's OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, as saying Saturday. He added that the group's output would be lowered by a total of 3 million barrels a day by the second quarter of 2001. Support for a cut of 1.5 million barrels a day also came over the weekend from Iraq, which does not participate in OPEC output quotas because of United Nations sanctions in place since 1990. OPEC's ninth-largest producer, Indonesia, today said it would support cuts at that level. U.S. Request U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson asked OPEC at the weekend not to reduce production, arguing higher oil prices might slow economic growth. The U.S. Federal Reserve cited the slowing effect of high oil prices on economic growth as one reason for cutting its benchmark interest rate by 0.5 percentage point to 6 percent last week. OPEC raised output quotas four times last year and production reached a 21-year high in an effort to keep its benchmark oil price between $22 and $28 a barrel. OPEC's benchmark reached a high of $33.84 in September. The 11-strong group produced 29.4 million barrels a day in November, or about 40 percent of the world's oil, according to Bloomberg estimates. An OPEC production cut may not be followed by other producers. Norway said last week it had no plans to reduce output. Oman said yesterday it has not been asked to join OPEC's move to reduce output, Platt's reported. Russia's energy ministry said last week it planned to raise production this quarter. Mexican Energy Secretary Ernesto Martens said yesterday his country would wait until after OPEC's Jan. 17 meeting before deciding on whether to revise its own output levels. Mexico produces about 3 million barrels a day, equivalent to OPEC's third- largest producer, Venezuela. Crude oil's gains were limited by reports Friday that exports from Iraq, OPEC's fourth-largest producer, had resumed after a four-day halt. Iraq originally halted oil shipments from Dec. 1 through Dec. 12 because the UN, which supervises most of Baghdad's trade, refused to allow the country to levy a surcharge to be deposited in accounts outside of UN control. Exports resumed Dec. 13 and continued through the rest of the month at less than half November's average rate of 2.1 million barrels a day.